Ok I couldn’t get my hands on kerela (bitter gourd or melon) because we are in a different section of Peshawar.
We are in an area called Hayatabad so karela is not available here.
Instead I was in a royal snit because I had a strong taste for karela. Mr. Riaz told me a long time ago about a vegetable that is long and bitter and tastes just like karela but it isn’t.
It is a long vegetable and has a tiny bit of string on the outside. This gets cleaned off and gets chopped in to pieces. I use 1 kilo or 1 pound of choonga.
Choonga is the Hindko name for this vegetable. Hindko is almost like Punjabi and has Punjabi words. Pammanke is the Pashto name for this same vegetable.
Karela is also used for this dish if you can’t find choonga or Pammanke depending on your language.
With 6 karelas you just cut in half and remove the seeds. Take either the clean karela or choonga and add 2 handfuls of salt to clean and remove bitterness. Let sit overnight in the refrigerator and next day rinse very well to remove the salt.
I fried in batches by the handfuls and set aside until there is no more raw choonga or karela left to fry. I fry them until they are brown in 1/4 cup of cooking oil. I really prefer olive oil.
In a mortar and pestle I add 1 pinch each of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and fenugreek seeds. I grind this in to a coarse powder and set aside.
I add 6 cloves of garlic and grind it to a mush in a mortar and pestle.
In the same pot that I fried either karela or choonga in, I added 1 cooking spoon of cooking oil.
I added 1 onion cut in to half moon slices and fried it until it is brown. I added the garlic and cooked it until the rawness went away.
I added the masala I had ground earlier with 1 tiny broken piece of amchur, 1 pinch each of pink salt, red chili powder and turmeric.
I stirred and added 1 tomato and cooked it until it is mushy. I readded either the karela or choonga I had fried earlier back to the pot and on low heat cook for another 10 minutes.
After it was nice and soft, I removed it from the heat.
This is now ready to eat with either naan or chapati.
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